The Soap at Baton Rouge, 1990 by Claes Oldenburg

The Soap at Baton Rouge, 1990; Cast polyurethane soap inscribed with initials, titled, and numbered 40/250 set on vinyl filled with aluminum silicon support with serigraph on acetate cover; Also includes deluxe edition of Claes Oldenburg: Multiples in Retrospect 1964-1990, Signed Oldenburg in pencil and numbered 40/250; Contained in cloth covered portfolio box; Published Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati; Catalog Raisonne: Platzker 23; Size - 13 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 1 1/2".

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!      

Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) is an American sculptor living and working in New York and he is best known for his public art installations, which usually feature either very large replicas or soft sculpture versions of everyday objects. Many of the works were made in collaboration with his wife of 32 years, Coosje van Bruggen; who passed away in 2009.

Cover removed from the portfolio box.

 

 Close up of the cast polyurethane soap inscribed with initials, titled, and numbered 40/250 set on vinyl filled with aluminum silicon support with serigraph on acetate cover.

 

 

Close up of the cast polyurethane soap inscribed with initials, titled, and numbered 40/250 set on vinyl filled with aluminum silicon support, without the serigraph on acetate cover.

 

 Close up of the cast polyurethane soap inscribed with initials, titled, and numbered 40/250.

 

 Close up of the cast polyurethane soap inscribed with the CO initials and numbered 40/250.

 

 Serigraph on acetate cover.

Oldenburg began working with his ground breaking idea of soft sculpture in 1957, when he completed a free-hanging piece made from a woman's stocking stuffed with newspaper (titled later as "Sausage"). In 1959, he began to make figures, signs, and objects out of papier-mâché, sacking, and other rough materials. This was followed in 1961 by objects created out of plaster and enamel, drawing inspiration from food and cheap clothing. In the 1960s he was very involved with the "Happenings" movement and his own productions were entitled "Ray Gun Theater." His artistic collaboration involved other members of the art scene and included: Lucas Samaras, Tom Wesselman, Carolee Schneemann, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Richard Artschwager, art dealer Annina Nosei, art critic Barbara Rose, and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer. In December 1961, he rented a storefront on Manhattan's Lower East Side to house "The Store;" a month-long installation he had first presented at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York, stocked with rough sculptures of consumer goods. Oldenburg moved to Los Angeles, California in 1963. By 1965 he had turned his attention to drawings and projects for imagined outdoor monuments.

Deluxe edition of Claes Oldenburg: Multiples in Retrospect 1964-1990.

Oldenburg pencil signature and numbered 40/250 on the back page.

Cloth covered portfolio box cover.

 

Claes Oldenburg on "The Soap at Baton Rouge":

 

"When Carl Solway called me in May 1972 and asked if I would be interested in proposing a large-scale work for Cincinnati, he mentioned that partial funding for such a work might be sought from the Procter & Gamble Corporation, whose world headquarters are in that city. The most familiar product of that company is the bar of pure white soap we all grew up with-IVORY-embossed with its name on top. Its slogan-"It foats"-advertises one of its unique properties, a property it has in common with balloons and ships. What sprang to mind almost immediately, given the location of Cincinnati of the Ohio River, was the combination of a floating soap bar and an old-fashioned, paddle-wheel riverboat-in other words, a colossal bar of Ivory soap. I proposed to Carl that a colossal soap be made by Procter & Gamble and launched in Cincinnati with appropriate ceremony. It would therefore float down the Ohio River, stopping at towns along the way. Carl thought that this even could be coordinated with celebrations of the Bicentennial in 1976. Another property of Ivory soap, however, had to be taken into account; its tendency to dissolve, which it does rather more quickly than other soaps. As the colossal soap moved from town to town, it would grow smaller, like the icebergs which, I read some; ere, were going to be towed from the Arctic to Arabia in order to provide fresh water. At Cairo, Illinois, the now somewhat-less-than-colossal soap would slip into the Mississippi. From there on, it would become more and more difficult to gather people to celebrate the visit of the soap. By the time the soap reached Baton Rouge, it wold be the right size for a multiple. Though it seems small, one must remember that in the not-so-distant past, it would have made a very imposing sight, especially coming around the bend in the morning fog."

This is an exceptional example of a Claes Oldenburg Pop Art multiple, combined with a signed copy of the catalogue raisonne of Oldenburg multiples from 1964-1990. A great addition to any modern art collection!

#Oldenburg #ClaesOldenburg #Popart #Warhol #CoosjevanBruggen  #untitledartgallery #civicmonument #soap #SoapatBatonRouge #BatonRouge #IvorySoap #multiple #art #artist #artwork #ProcterandGamble #sculpture

Battle for Grown-Ups, 1969 by Gene Davis

 

Battle for Grown-Ups from Series 2, 1969; Serigraph on canvas laminated on board; Signed Gene Davis in ink, lower right verso; Stamp titled with Petersburg Press and numbered 69/150 in ink verso lower left; Size - 31 x 20"; Unframed.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"My whole approach is intuitive. Sometimes I simply use the color I have the most of and worry about getting out of trouble later. Perhaps I'm like the jazz musician who can't read music but plays by ear. I paint by eye." - Gene Davis

Gene Davis (1920-1985) was an American Color Field painter known for his paintings of vertical strips of color. His first exhibition of drawings and first exhibition of paintings occurred in 1952 and 53 respectively. However, it was not until a decade later than he participated in the "Washington Color Painters" exhibit at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington DC that launched the recognition of the Washington Color School as a regional art movement. Davis was a central figure of that movement and was most known for his acrylic paintings of colored vertical stripes, which he began to paint in 1958.

 

In 1972, Davis created "Franklin's Footpath," which was at the time the world's largest artwork. It was accomplished by painting colored vertical stripes on the street in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also painted "Niagara" in 1979, the world's largest painting (43,680 square feet) in a parking lot in Lewiston, NY. Davis also painted (at the other extreme) his "micro-paintings," that were as small as 3/8 on an inch wide.

In 1966, Gene Davis began teaching at the Corcoran School of Art, becoming a permanent member of the faculty. His works are included in many public and private collections as well as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum; just to name a few.

Close up of the Gene Davis signature verso.

Close up of the Stamp title, Petersburg Press, and the edition number 69/150 in ink verso.

 

Davis's paintings tend to repeat particular colors in order to create a sense of rhythm and repetition with variations. "Battle for Grown-Ups," 1969 is a wonderful example of Davis at the height of his skill. Colors are repeated across the canvas forcing the eye to dance about looking for ebbs and flows of interactions. Colored lines are arranged as pairs or discreet groupings of alternating colors to keep the eye moving. Adjacent colors push and pull lines of color away and towards the viewer in a seemingly ever ending orchestration. The eyes of the viewer are being expertly manipulated by Davis in a color and field "battle," ever seeking a way to resolve the composition. Perfectly titled by Gene Davis, "Battle for Grown-Ups" would be a wonderful work for any modern art collection!

  #GeneDavis #colorfield #art #artwork #artist #untitledartgallery #OpArt #WashingtonColorSchool

Blue/Black/Red/Green, 2001 by Ellsworth Kelly

Blue/Black/Red/Green, 2001; Lithograph on Lanaquarelle 640 gram paper; Numbered 26/45 and signed Kelly in pencil lower right; Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles; Publisher's blind stamp lower right; Catalog Raisonne: Axsom 293; Size - Sheet 25 x 88 3/4", Frame 29 x 93"; Framed with a white wood frame floated on an acid free white mat, and plexiglass.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"I have worked to free shape from its ground, and then to work the shape so that it has a definite relationship to the space around it; so that it has a clarity and a measure within itself of its parts (angles, curves, edges, and mass); and so that, with color and tonality, the shape finds its own space and always demands its freedom and separateness." - Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker who was associated with Hard-Edge painting, Color Field, and Minimalism. He is one of the 20th century's greatest and most influential artists, and his work hangs in the world's finest museum's permanent collections.

Despite Kelly being associated with Minimalism, he did not view himself as a minimalist at all; but rather a figure to ground and a color interaction painter. Ellsworth Kelly's works do have a life model, and unlike Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers, or Barnett Newman; Kelly derives his forms from nature and his surroundings. Photographs taken by Kelly in France as early as 1949 show the casting of shadow and light over surfaces of Parisian architecture; and it was these photographs that served as references for his paintings at the time. The forms, derived from shadows or just small sections of trees or buildings, are then edited and isolated into regular and/or irregular geometric shapes. Kelly then paints these forms choosing specific colors to isolate the form, and in some cases relates them to other colored forms within the composition. 

Close up of the edition number and Kelly signature.

Framed Blue/Black/Red/Green, 2001 by Ellsworth Kelly

Blue/Black/Red/Green, 2001 is both a color interaction and a figure to ground work. The light values of each of the four colors are chosen specifically by Kelly; as is the orientation, scale, size, and form. Any modification of the parameters of the composition alters the experience. For example, if you inverse the work with green on the left and blue on the right, the color interaction is now different. The effect would also be altered if blue were next to black as compared to blue adjacent to green; or if one of the forms were closer to another. The work also has a figure (blue, black, red, and green forms) and ground (white paper) relationship. At first glance the forms appear flat and stagnant, however the size and shape of the forms is the same, each just being slightly rotated on it's three dimensional axes thus giving the work depth of field. The four colored forms float above the ground and there is a mood that is created. The result of viewing this work is the realization that this is a specific and elegant composition, created with the intent of invoking both a feeling and mood. The composition does not have to be objects that are recognizable in order to have a subject, and that subject can be an emotion, state of existence, and/or a response.  

 

Blue/Black/Red/Green, 2001 is a large and exceptional work by Ellsworth Kelly, and would be a great addition to any modern fine art collection.

#EllsworthKelly #LeoCastelli #untitledartgallery #print #artwork #art #colorfield #minimalism #lithograph #modernart #artist

Black Bean Campbell's Soup, 1968 by Andy Warhol

 

Black Bean Campbell's Soup; Serigraph, 1968, on smooth wove paper, signed in ball-point pen Andy Warhol and stamp-numbered 173/250 in ink verso; published by Factory Additions, New York; Size - Sheet 35" x 23", Frame 43 1/2" x 31 1/2"; Framed with an acid free white mat, white wood frame, and plexiglass; Catalog Raisonne: Feldman/Schellmann: II.44.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

 

Warhol said of Campbell’s soup, “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, I guess, the same thing over and over again.”

 

In 1962, which heralded the arrival of Pop Art as an artistic movement, Andy Warhol began his transition from hand painting to the production of photo-transferred art. Warhol was always searching and asking friends for suggestions on subject matter, and an acquaintance suggested he paint something that everybody recognized, "like Campbell's Soup." Warhol appropriated the idea literally and the resulting soup can projections were traced onto canvas and then meticulously hand-painted. The result appeared both uniform and mechanical, but the thirty two different hand painted flavors of soup showed subtle variations and imperfections, thereby elevating the the subject matter resulting in the production of the high art ready-made and creating a masterpiece of early Pop Art. 

The set of thirty two canvas soup cans were first exhibited by art dealer Irving Blum at his Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. The paintings were arranged on grocery store shelves. The Campbell's Soup Cans caused a sensation in the art world with their banal mundanity and their mirror of commercialism. A dealer in a nearby Gallery even sold actual soup cans touting them as cheaper than a Warhol.

 

 

Close up of the edition number and Andy Warhol signature verso.

Blum did manage to sell several of the individual soup cans, including one to his friend the actor Dennis Hopper; but decided that the set should stay together, so he bought the paintings back, and paid Andy for the entire set ($1000 paid over 10 months for all 32 paintings). After Warhol's death, Irving Blum would sell the entire set to New York's Museum of Modern Art for $15 million.

 

 

Verso of Black Bean Campbell's Soup, 1968 by Andy Warhol.

Irving Blum, by preserving Campbell's Soup Cans was critical to the success of the work and as Sara McCorquodale stated in 2015, "The work seemed to speak of the spirit of the spirit of a new America, one that thoroughly embraced the consumer culture of the new decade. Before the end of the year Campbell's Soup Cans was so on-trend that Manhattan socialites were wearing soup can printed dresses to high-society events." The success of Campbell's Soup Cans also marked a turning point of Warhol's working process, as he turned completely towards utilizing silkscreens for both painting and printing. He continued to use the Campbell's soup can as subject matter and in 1968 he would reinterpret his famous work as Campbell's Soup I, a portfolio of ten signed and numbered serigraphs. By utilizing silkscreens, Warhol was able to achieve the mechanized (factory) look that he desired, thereby fulfilling his desire to "be a machine." Each soup can in the suite of ten would be identical varying only by their flavor: Black Bean, Chicken Noodle, Tomato, Onion (Made with Beef Stock), Vegetable (Made with Beef Stock), Beef (With Vegetables and Barley), Green Pea, Pepper Pot, Consumme (Beef) Gelatin Added, and Cream of Mushroom. The soup can prints would become the greatest of his graphic oeuvre, and forever be instantly recognized as quintessential Warhol.

Framed Black Bean Campbell's Soup, 1968 by Andy Warhol. 

 

Black Bean Campbell's Soup, 1968 by Andy Warhol is an absolutely fantastic work by the great Pop artist and would be a wonderful addition to any art collection!

#Warhol #AndyWarhol #PopArt #WarholFoundation #blackbean #tomatosoup #untitledartgallery #campbells #campbellssoup #soupcan #CampbellSoupCans #IrvingBlum #FerusGallery #Warholsoupcan #signedWarhol #signedandnumbered

Cobalt Macchia with Huckleberry Lip Wrap, 2012 by Dale Chihuly

 

Monumental Cobalt Macchia with Huckleberry Lip Wrap, 2012; Free blown, flared form with undulating rim, dappled with shades of green and  yellow with a cobalt blue interior and huckleberry lip wrap; Engraved Chihuly 12; Provenance: Estate of Richard L. Weisman, Beverly Hills, CA; Size: 19 1/2 x 35 x 33 1/2".

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"My work, to this day revolves around a simple set of circumstances: fire, molten glass, human breath, spontaneity, centrifugal force, gravity." - Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly was born on September 20, 1941 and is an American glass sculptor. His works are considered to be exceptional in the field of blown glass; and he has adapted the technical difficulties of the medium to explore and implement installations, as well as environment specific artwork.

Chihuly first began experimenting with glass blowing in 1965 and began an extensive education centered around sculpture. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1968; and that same year was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant for his work in glass, as well as a Fulbright Fellowship. He traveled to Venice to work at the Venini factory on the island of Murano, where he first saw the team approach to glass blowing. In 1976, while in England, he was involved in a head-on-car crash which propelled him through the windshield. His face was severely cut by glass and he was permanently blinded in his left eye. After recovering, he continued to blow glass until he dislocated his right shoulder in 1979 while body surfing.

No longer able to hold a glassblowing pipe, he was able to utilize the team approach to glass blowing he had seen in Murano, and hired other artists to do the physical work. Chihuly explained the change saying, "Once I stepped back, I liked the view." He felt liberated and more free to see the work from multiple perspectives, and the change enabled him to anticipate problems earlier and to react. His role in the studio changed from participate, to supervisor and problem solver. One of the most critically acclaimed series by Chihuly was the Macchia series. Macchia, which is Italian for spot, was begun in 1981 and continues today.

 

As Chihuly has explained:

"The Macchia series began with my waking up one day wanting to use all three hundred of the colors in the hot shop. I started by making up a color chart with one color for the interior, another color for the exterior, and contrasting color for the lip wrap, along with various jimmies and dusts of pigment between the layers of glass. Throughout the blowing process, colors were added, layer upon layer. Each piece was another experiment. When we unloaded the ovens in the morning, there was the rush of seeing something I had never seen before. Like much of my work, the series inspired itself. The unbelievable combination of color - that was the driving force."

From Timothy Anglin Burgard, Chihuly the Artist: Breathing Live into Glass, 2008:

(The Macchia) Often balanced slightly off-center, they attempt to capture the essence of glass in its most volatile sate - simultaneously hot and flowing, but also cool and congealing. The blurred edges of the color striations and "spots" suggest that they are being dissolved by heat or have coalesced into opal-like mineral deposits. Chihuly's "lip wraps," think ribbons of colored glass that run along the vessel's lip suggest the presence of a super-heated inner core and recall the leading edge of a lava flow, breaking through the congealing perimeter of a magma mass. - Chihuly's Macchia are permanently aglow with the fires of their creation."
 

 

The following are various views of Cobalt Macchia with Huckleberry Lip Wrap, 2012 by Dale Chihuly:

From Robert Hobbs, The Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Professor of American Art History, Virgina Commonwealth University: 

"In the Macchia, Chihuly makes this former (Classic Venetian blown glass) static orientation dynamic and enlarges this conservative scale to awesome proportions. He heightens tensions between inside and outside through dissonant color combinations and through contrasts of opacity, translucency, and transparency. Rather than continuing the preciousness of the filigree of the Bianconi examples, he creates a bolder impact by rolling ships of colored glass into the walls of the vessel for a mottled effect."

Chihuly and his team of artists have been the subjects of several documentaries, extensive printed articles, monographs, and collections. For a complete list of Museum collections, please click on the link below:

Dale Chihuly Museum Collections

 

Engraved Chihuly signature and 2012 date.

"Cobalt Macchia with Huckleberry Lip Wrap," 2012 is an exceptional example of Dale Chihuly at his best. This monumental Macchia is composed of cobalt blue as the dominant interior color, green and yellow spots are set against the blue interior ground, and finished with a contrasting huckleberry colored lip. An absolutely stunning and massive piece of modern glass by the most important glass artist of his time, and a standout of any art collection!

#Chihuly #DaleChihuly #Artglass #Blownglass #Macchia #glass #Art #artist #untitledartgallery #MacchiaSeries

Red Open with White Line, 1979 by Robert Motherwell

Red Open with White Line, 1979; Etching and aquatint in red and black, on Georges Duchêne Hawthorne of Larroque handmade paper; Initialed in ink, numbered 46/56 lower left; Published by the artist, with his blindstamp lower right; Catalogue Raisonne: Belknap 207; Size -  Sheet: 18 x 35 1/2", Frame 27 x 46"; Framed floated with an acid free mat, wood frame, and plexiglass; Exhibited: Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA, May 5 - October 14, 1984; The Modern Art of the Print: Selections from the Collection of Lois and Michael Torf, pl. XLIII, p. 118 (illustrated).

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

Robert Motherwell (1915 – 1991) was an American painter, print maker, writer, and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School (a term he coined), which also included the artists Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

Motherwell was the most educated of all of the abstract expressionist. He was from a well educated and wealthy family, and received a BA in philosophy from Stanford University. It was at Stanford that Motherwell was introduced to modernism through his extensive reading of symbolist and other literature, especially Mallarmé, James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, and Octavio Paz. Literary reference became a major theme of his later paintings and drawings. However, his father urged him to pursue a more secure career and Motherwell states that the reason he went to Harvard was because he wanted to be a painter: "And finally after months of really a cold war he made a very generous agreement with me that if I would get a Ph.D. so that I would be equipped to teach in a college as an economic insurance, he would give me fifty dollars a week for the rest of my life to do whatever I wanted to do on the assumption that with fifty dollars I could not starve but it would be no inducement to last. So with that agreed on Harvard then—it was actually the last year—Harvard still had the best philosophy school in the world. And since I had taken my degree at Stanford in philosophy, and since he didn't care what the Ph.D. was in, I went on to Harvard."

However, it was in 1940 that Motherwell would make an important decision. He moved to New York to study at Columbia University, where he was encouraged by the great critic/writer Meyer Schapiro to devote himself to painting rather than scholarship. Shapiro introduced the young artist to a group of exiled Parisian Surrealists including Max Ernst, Duchamp, and Andre Masson; and arranged for Motherwell to study with the Swiss artist Kurt Seligmann.

Matta introduced Motherwell to the concept of “automatic” drawings. Wolfgang Paalen would also have a profound impact on Motherwell, and his resulting drawings showed more plane graphic cadences and swelling ink-spots that referenced possible figurations. Motherwell would pass this information onto American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and William Baziotes; whom Motherwell befriended in New York shortly after a trip to Mexico. In 1991, shortly before he died, Motherwell remembered a "conspiracy of silence" regarding Paalen´s innovative role to the genesis of Abstract Expressionism and to the New York School.

Close up of the initials and the edition number.

Robert Motherwell: "What I realized was that Americans potentially could paint like angels but that there was no creative principle around, so that everybody who liked modern art was copying it. Gorky was copying Picasso. Pollock was copying Picasso. De Kooning was copying Picasso. I mean I say this unqualifiedly. I was painting French intimate pictures or whatever. And all we needed was a creative principle, I mean something that would mobilize this capacity to paint in a creative way, and that's what Europe had that we hadn't had; we had always followed in their wake. And I thought of all the possibilities of free association—because I also had a psychoanalytic background and I understood the implications—might be the best chance to really make something entirely new which everybody agreed was the thing to do."

In 1942 Motherwell began to exhibit his work in New York and in 1944 had his first one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim’s “Art of This Century” gallery. Also in 1944 MoMA became the first museum to purchase one of his works. From the mid-1940s, Motherwell was the leading spokesman for avant-garde art in America, and his circle of friends included William Baziotes, David Hare, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko.

Throughout the 1950s Motherwell taught painting at Hunter College in New York and at Black Mountain College in North Carolina where his students included Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, and Kenneth Noland. During this time, he was a prolific writer and lecturer, directed the influential Documents of Modern Art Series, and edited The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, published in 1951. Also, during the 1950's Motherwell's collages began to incorporate material from his studio such as cigarette packets and labels that would become records of his daily life. He was married from 1958 to 1971, to Helen Frankenthaler, a successful abstract painter in her own right.

Framed Red Open with White Line, 1979.

Robert Motherwell made his first prints in 1943 and returned to printmaking in the early 1960s at the invitation of the ULAE print studio. His later work with Tyler Graphics, Gemini G.E.L., and printers working in his own studio, evolved into an impressive body of nearly 460 prints influencing countless artists with his innovative ideas and printmaking techniques. The bulk of his work is comprised of gestural images (Elegies), a few are linear compositions (Opens), and a considerable number of prints that contain some element of collage.

 

Red Open with White Line is composed of a luminous field of red color that is interrupted by a subtle thin black line etched double rectangle, that hangs precariously from the upper right edge. The deeply bitten aquatint printed on the rough textured surface of the handmade paper results in a powerful intense saturation of hue, on a very rich modulated color field. The minimalist structure on a field of serenity is part of the "Open" repertoire by Motherwell that begun in 1967. The rectangle within a rectangle is the recurring theme of the "Opens" that suggests a window within a wall. The vast expansive quality of the red field runs in three directions but is arrested by the white line on the left margin edge. This is a wonderful example of Motherwell at his best, a great example of his brilliant use of color and form, and would be a great addition to any fine art collection.

 #abstractexpressionism #RobertMotherwell #Motherwell #OpenSeries #Belknap #RedOpenwithWhiteLine #untitledartgallery #handmadepape  #aquatint #ULAE #GeminiGEL

Self Portrait With Camera - Invitation To Light Gallery Opening, January 6, 1973 by Robert Mapplethorpe

Self Portrait With Camera - Invitation To Light Gallery Opening, January 6, 1973; Silver print from Polaroid negative, with adhesive dot; Robert Mapplethorpe blind-stamp lower edge, Signed Robert Mapplethorpe and dated 73 in black ink verso; With original Polaroid sleeve; Size - 3 x 3 3/4", Sheet 3 1/2 x 4 1/2", Frame 21 3/4 x 16 3/4"; Framed using a black wood frame, acid free mats, and UV conservation clear glass.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"I'm looking for things I've never seen before. But I have trouble with the word 'shocking' because I'm not really shocked by anything... Basically, I'm selfish. I did (those photos) for myself- because I wanted to do them, because I wanted to see them. I wasn't trying to educate anyone. I was interested in examining my own reactions." - Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) was an American photographer most known for his black and white photographs featuring an array of subjects including: celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits, and sill-life images. His most controversial works documented and examined the homosexual BDSM subculture of New York City in the late 1960's and early 1970's. A 1989 museum exhibition of his works, entitled Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, sparked debate and outrage concerning the use of public funds for what was deemed by some as "obscene" artwork. There was public discord surrounding the US Constitutional limits of free speech, and what was deemed to be art.

 

Self Portrait With Camera - Invitation To Light Gallery Opening, January 6, 1973 by Robert Mapplethorpe

 

Close up of the Robert Mapplethorpe blind-stamp

Robert Mapplethorpe signature and dated 73 in black ink verso

 

Close up of the original Polaroid sleeve

Framed Self Portrait With Camera - Invitation To Light Gallery Opening, January 6, 1973 with original Polaroid sleeve by Robert Mapplethorpe

 

Front cover of Polaroids Mapplethorpe by Sylvia Wolf, 2008

Back cover of Polaroids Mapplethorpe by Sylvia Wolf, 2008

 

In 1970 Robert Mapplethorpe bought a Polaroid camera so he could take photographs to use in his collages. But he began to appreciate the quality of the Polaroid photographs which led to his first exhibition: Polaroids which was on January 6, 1973 at Light Gallery, 1018 Madison Avenue, New York. For the invitation, Mapplethorpe took a self-portrait in the mirror, holding his Polaroid camera in front of his bare crotch. Three hundred gelatin silver prints were made from the negative and embossed with Mapplethorpe's name. Either a red or white dot was applied to the front to conceal his penis - a way to avoid the laws forbidding the circulation of nudity through the US mail. Information about the opening's location and time, and the photograph (slipped inside the protective paper that came with the Polaroid film which read on the outside "DON'T TOUCH HERE, Handle Only On Edges, Polaroid Polacolor Land Film, Pack Type 108") were tucked into a think cream-colored Tiffany envelope and mailed.

 

Harold Jones, then director of Light Gallery, remembers the opening as crowded with uptown collectors, downtown hustlers, artists, musicians, and celebrities. The scene that Jones recalls was an early indicator of Mapplethorpe's appeal across socioeconomic lines. It also signaled a growing audience for photography. 

 

For the book Polaroids Mapplethorpe by Sylvia Wolf, 2008; which was published in collaboration with the exhibition of the same name at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York features Self Portrait With Camera - Invitation To Light Gallery Opening, January 6, 1973 on the front cover and the original Polaroid sleeve on the back cover. This is Robert Mapplethorpe's first photography exhibit announcement and is also an early signed nude self-portrait from an extremely rare a and would be a wonderful addition to any art collection!

  #Mapplethorpe #RobertMapplethorpe #Polaroid #LightGallery #gelatinsilverprint #malenude #SelfPortraitWithCamera #photograph #signedphotograph #untitledartgallery #Art #Artwork #OriginalMapplethorpe